about something dentists use, especially on young patients. >>> also tonight, making a difference on the home front, >>> also tonight, making a difference on the home front, "nightly news" begins now. captions paid for by nbc-universal television >>> good evening. it's always been the american ideal, part of the american way, pushing ahead, always getting better, always improving, a future always brighter than our past. but tonight in the new nbc news polling numbers debuting today, americans are losing hope in the future of their country in greater numbers now. our new numbers contain bad news for the president and bad news for his party. a lot of it because the economy is beyond bad and it's been that way for quite a while. and we begin tonight with our political director, chief white house correspondent, chuck todd. just a grim set of numbers this time. >> it really is. and the pessimism isn't about the now, it's about the future. look at this first number. is america in a state of decline? 65%, two-thirds of the country, agrees that america is in a state of decline. that sort